§ David MacleanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many days on average were lost per employee in his Department because of sickness; and how many officials retired early from his Department in each of the past 10 years. [R][5050]
§ Mr. BlunkettAvailable comparable information on working days lost due to sickness is given in table 1. Available information on the number of staff having retired early from the Department is given in Tables 2 and 3.
Information on sickness absence data for the Civil Service between 1995 and 1998 was published in a British Medical Institute (BMI) Health Services Report, "Analysis of Sickness Absence in the Civil Service", produced on behalf of the Cabinet Office. These figures were based on staff years and are not therefore comparable with later figures based on the approved method using working days.
Table 2: Annual early retirements of staff within the Home Office and non-Prison Service agencies between 1 January 1992 and 20 September 2001 Leaving reason 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 Retirement—ill health 36 61 77 82 97 69 59 41 33 9 Retirement—actuarially reduced 2 3 7 7 3 4 9 6 4 3 Early Retirement/severance on structural grounds or grounds of limited efficiency/postability 7 29 48 36 72 25 22 24 13 17 Compulsory early retirement/severance on redundancy/voluntary redundancy 75 48 57 30 33 60 3 3 2 2 Total 120 141 189 155 205 158 93 74 52 31
Table 3: Early retirements of staff within the Prison Service Leaving reason 1998 1999 2000 2001 Retirement—ill health 356 321 285 105 Retirement—approved early 25 32 43 25 Retirement—actuarially reduced 11 6 8 4 Retirement—compulsory early 11 13 12 6 Total 403 372 348 140